An Entry to Iranian Music: Call for Participation
An Entry to Iranian Music
Curated by Aman Askarizad
Museum of Impossible Forms is excited to announce An Entry to Iranian Music, an eight-session workshop as part of our Alternate Pedagogy program and to further the curatorial focus of ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs (For Insurgents, Citizens and Untitled Bodies)’. M has invited Aman Askarizad to devise a series of lectures, workshops, and performances, jointly conducted by Farshad Sanati, Aman Askarizad and guest lecturers.
This course will provide nuanced and detailed introductions to several important fundamentals and advanced concepts of Iranian Music.In our workshops with an engaging and interactive method, the participants will obtain a holistic knowledge about the history, characteristics, scales and modes, rhythms and instruments of Iranian music.‘Oriental Music’, ‘Eastern Music’–as terms–often simplify complex genres of music and sound in various regions of the Middle East and Asia. The project tends to dispel simplifications and generalisations by providing in-depth look into Iran’s music, its history, its symbiotic relationships with other forms of music in the region that have been otherwise categorized as ‘Oriental music’.
Please note:
Several sessions for this course require signing up. Further reading material and detailed information may be provided after signing up.
Accompanying performances are open to public. All the sessions are free to attend.
Participate by filling this form
Schedule
Rhythms in Persian Poetry
Tuesday, 03.03.2020
Lecture by Mohsen Namjoo.
This session is about Rhythms in Persian poetry and music. Mohsen Namjoo, a world-known musician, songwriter and poet will talk about this topic and explain how hundreds of rhythms has derived from ancient Persian poetry and can come in life in Iranian music. This session is open for public.
Geography of Instruments in Iran 1: Rhythm & Percussions
Friday, 27.03.2020
Lecture and workshop led by Pasha Karami.
In the first part of the session, Pasha Karami will talk about rhythm in Iranian music and introduce percussion instruments used in Iran. This session is for signed up participants and requires a background in music.
In the second part of the session, our guest lecturer will introduce and perform his invented percussion instrument, the Shahzarb. This performance is open to public.
History of Music in Iran
Friday, 10.04.2020
Aman Askarizad & Farshad Sanati
An introduction to the History of music in Iran. We will discuss the works of musicians and intellectuals in the middle ages, and the formation of the Dastgah System and existing repertory of Iranian music, the Radif. This session is open for public.
The Dastgah System: Intervals & Structure
Friday, 24.04.2020
Lecture by Farshad Sanati.
This lecture will outline the characteristics and intervals in Iranian/Turkish/Arabic Music. It will describe the concept of ‘Tetrachords’ and provide practical demonstrations of the different tetrachords and scales. Through musical samples, participants will be Introduced to various components of the Radif (7 Dastgah & 5 Avaz from Radif). This session is for signed up participants and requires a background in music.
In the second part of the session, our guest lecturer will conduct a public performance.
The Dastgah System: Composition & Improvisation
Friday, 08.05.2020
Conducted by Farshad Sanati & Aman Askarizad.
An advanced analysis of a Dastgah will demonstrate the functionality of the concepts introduced in the first session, such as components of the Dastgah (Gusheh) and the notion of Shahed or Tonic notes in it. Dastgah-e-Shur, also known as Mother of Dastgah, as a case study will demonstrate how changing of modes and movement between different Dastgah are possible. This session is for signed up participants and requires a background in music.
In the second part of the session, Farshad Sanati will perform an improvisation in Shur mode. This performance is open to public
Contemporaneity in Iranian Music
Friday, 15.05.2020
Guest Artist: Arash Pandi
Lecture via skype by Sina Mousavi Fard
Arash Pandi, an Iranian experimental electronic musician - sound artist/ teacher based in Copenhagen will perform his audio-visual set, “Exotic Paradox” and give a lecture on the whole code-based and live production process of music. He will share how he wrote some programs that allowed him to reach microtonal intervals of Persian Dastgah music system and do sound synthesis and intense electronic production on them later on.
In the second part, we will discuss the notion of contemporaneity in Iranian music and among Iranian musicians with Sina Mousavi Fard from Iran via skype.
Geography of Instruments in Iran 2
Friday, 22.05.2020
Led by Aman Askarizad and Farshad Sanati.
A historical and geographical background of Instruments shared in the region, and we introduce technical dimensions of the instruments used in Iranian music.
Participants will be introduced to a range of instruments, such as the Tar, Setar, Santur, Tanbur, Ney, Kamancheh, and violin, in a practical session where they can hold, play with, and familiarise themselves with these instruments. This is followed by a series of public performances with the invited guest instrumentalists. This session is for signed up participants and requires a background in music.
Then & Now: Improvisation & Performance
Saturday, 05.06.2020
Final Improvisation & performance by participants + guest artists
In this last session, our participants can present their take from lectures. We also invite a few more Iranian instrumentalists and musicians to take part in this session to improvise with workshop participants.
This session will be condcted as part of the Museum of Impossible Forms Summer School 2020 (more information about this soon).
Museum of Impossible Forms is a cultural space, located in Kontula, Helsinki. It is a contested Space and it represents a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking. Impossible Forms are those that erase and facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator. For 2019-2020, Museum of Impossible Forms operates under the curatorial theme of ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs (For Insurgents, Citizens and Untitled Bodies)’.
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